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Post by Moderator on Mar 21, 2004 5:30:39 GMT -5
Name, age , location, floater situation, etc !
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Post by Michel on Mar 21, 2004 15:14:40 GMT -5
My name's Michel, I'm 22 years old, and got my floaters when I was 17. I live in Ottawa, Canada, and have tons of floaters, of just about every conceivable type, size density, etc., in each eye.
What exactly caused my floaters is still something of a mystery; I'm basically on the borderline between moderate and severe myopia, but my optometrist and retinal specialist tell me they can't see a PVD (though there could still be one) in either eye, and I've never experienced the flashes associated with a PVD, nor do I have any retinal tears/holes/detachements, for which I am grateful. I was taking tetracycline for about 2 weeks prior to the arrival of my floaters, but as far as I know floaters are not a known side-effect of that medication.
I just hope something comes along that can put an end to the floaters; vitrectomy is out of the question for me; trading in my floaters for cataracts is NOT an acceptable option. If someone could come up wth a way to peform a FOV while eliminating (or at least significantly reducing) the probability of developing a cataract as a result, I'd go for it in a heartbeat, despite all the other risks. Hopefully someone will be following up on the hyalunoridaze treatment described on that abstract on eyefic.com. It's nice to know someone in the scientific community is at least putting some effort into the treatment of floaters.
Michel
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Post by Moderator on Mar 22, 2004 1:20:46 GMT -5
Thanks for the interesting story Regarding the cataracts, the younger you are the less likely you will develop it after surgery, but, I guess there are no real gaurantees. Keep us posted Michael! Have a good day!
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Post by EKE on Jun 19, 2004 10:00:50 GMT -5
[mild applause as EKE approaches the podium] Hello, my name is EKE. I'm 30 years old. I live in Taipei, Taiwan. And I... have eye floaters... [roaring supportive applause from support group] And thank god, I've found some sort of support group, finally! [whistle from back of audience] They came suddenly. I noticed them just last month while looking at the blue sky on a little boat off the island of Peng-Hu. "Curious how they weren't there yesterday," I thought. "You're a hypochondriac," my friend said. ['bullnuts!' cries an audience member] His wife had had a detached retina before, her surgery was successful and her eye looks fine, but... eye ball surgery is just a gross thought. [audience member coughs] I'm barely myopic. My vision is at about 125 in both eyes. My friend's wife's vision was at 700. But some people I know have vision of about 500 and no floaters... In the left eye, I have two little grey specks with tails that wander about my field of vision like little tadpoles acting like the bouncing ball that we follow along the lyrics to a song on a retro children's show ('Come on, everybody! Follow the bouncing ball!') In the right eye, I have the grey strands that produce an effect similar to that of a person smoking or burning incense in front of me wherever I go. If there are a lot of distracting lights and swirly twirlies and loop-dee-loops in my vicinity, then I barely notice them, because all the floaters just blend in with the general chaos. So it's good to live in a place like Taiwan, which has plenty of distracting lights, swirly twirlies, loop-dee-loops and other visual distractions. So, the ophthalmologists (I saw two) said it was nothing to worry about, of course. So, I think, well, maybe I can actually see MORE now - I can see the inside AND the outside of my eyeballs! Wow! I bought some lutein. It's expensive, but so are some of the dumber things people do with their money, like get drunk on the weekend and puke their guts out on Sunday (which was fun sometimes, but maybe it had something to do with the vitreous detaching from the retina... ) So, since it's supposed to be a fairly common condition, I asked some people at work if they had them. The response: "Oh... only old people get those...But you're not old..." Ah, yes... People only say 'you're not old' when you're 29 or above... And now I know that I'm the only person whom I know personally that has eye floaters. But at least I know now that I'm not alone! [audience stands and applauses, with occasional whistles] Thankyou.
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Post by Moderator on Jun 20, 2004 0:49:14 GMT -5
Applause for EKE!!! You from Taiwan? I moved to Australia from Taichung, Taiwan in 1989 and basically been living in Australia my whole life,but I can still speak Mandarin. Max, who has posted on this board can speak Mandarin (and Japanese) too! Quite skilled
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Post by EKE on Jun 20, 2004 9:42:05 GMT -5
I moved to Taiwan in 1997. I can speak Mandarin, but this is awkward as it's rather conspicuous for a white person to speak Mandarin in Taiwan (but it's also insulting when locals assume you can't speak, understand, read or write it!). It's made even more awkward by the fact that everyone and their dog spends an incredible amount of time, money and effort learning English, and they obviously would like to practice it with foreigners; which is very nice and all, but there's obviously a conflict in interests, as I would prefer to escape the stereotype of the ethnocentric American who can only speak English and has no concept of anything beyond his anglophone American bubble.
So, I like to put more emphasis on what I see as the most intriguing aspect of Chinese - the characters. Books don't try to translate themselves into English for me.
But if anything, I can atleast think of my ability to read Chinese characters as a sort of compensation for eye floaters. I mean, that's the religious side of me talking. I could also think of eye floaters as a punishment for watching pornography. My GOD! What are you doing with your eyes?!?! Are you reading Confucian classics or are you watching PORN?!?!?
But here I am procrastinating my work again. Currently I'm doing some writing work, which allows me to be nocturnal, which is nice because eye floaters aren't as much of a nuisance if you sleep all day. And it's a good excuse to explore Taipei's 24 hour culture. It's a small culture, but expanding. We now have a 24 hour New York Bagels right next to the 24 hour Eslite book store (great selection in books and CD's, too)
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Post by Moderator on Jun 23, 2004 20:00:46 GMT -5
wow, since 1997 So , what are you doing in Taipei? My dad is there at the moment heheh.
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Post by Frank on Jul 2, 2004 2:31:25 GMT -5
Hello ... my name's Frank, I'm 25, and I live in Belgium. I registred here because it seems I have a floaterproblem too. I got my first floater in my right eye 3 weeks ago. It "settles" at the bottom-right of my vision, but as soon I look around, it moves. A week after that I discoverd many more transparent floaters in my left eye. I went to the eye-doctor who gave me the good news on my birthday: "Get the champaign, you won't need any surgery.". When I asked when it would go away she answerend: "They won't go away, deal with it." When I'm at home, they don't annoy me. Perhaps because of the gentle lightning situation. When I'm outside ... I don't know what to think, it all depends much on the weather/lightning conditions. My work is a nightmare. I'm a computer-programmer, and there's a lot of light in the office. I see my floaters all the time, especially when looking up from the keyboard to the screen. They all fly up, to float downwards again ... they're driving me nuts, and the company doesn't seem to care It looks like I'm feeling depressed the last 3 weeks. I'm still in my I-can't-believe-this-is-for-the-rest-of-my-life-phase. When I'm free, I just want to stay inside, I seems I don't have any courage anymore to go out and have fun. Sounds stupid huh? Other hobbies I have ... photography (I really hope I don't have to quit this), and I'm part of a rollercoasterclub ... trying to visit as many as amusement parcs and fun fairs over the world. I hope I can get used to the situation, and can continue with my life someday with a happy face.
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Post by Moderator on Jul 3, 2004 9:52:45 GMT -5
Hey Frank!
Welcome to the discussion boards. I understand how you're feeling at the moment, because I went through the same stage about 2 years ago.
Even though the floaters are still annoying for me, I have learnt to deal with it, and I'm coping with it much better although I still feel depressed some of the time. I used to feel VERY depressed all of the time.
Don't give up any of your hobbies, keep doing what you love doing! Don't let the floaters get in the way!
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Post by chinostroza1 on Jul 12, 2004 2:29:14 GMT -5
Hello, My Name is Ray and I have had my floaters for six months, and I have been on the internet many times trying to find any information on my condition. I am A teacher in high school. I am 34 years old and I live in California.
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Post by Moderator on Jul 13, 2004 2:02:32 GMT -5
Hello Ray, Nice to have you with us
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Post by Peaches on Feb 18, 2005 11:45:31 GMT -5
I just got floaters in my left eye. I woke up last week with them. I just realized that a few days previous I had gotten something in my eye and it produced a distinctive reaction, that for some years now has resulted in a rash of pimples on the underside of the lid. So perhaps this eye infection precipitated the floaters. I have no medical insurance, and after several days of worsening vision, I went to my optomitrist, and he took a look and saw them and said there was no retinal tear. I asked him to rate them on a scale of one to ten and he said seven or eight.
I'm 57 years old and have always had poor vision. I've learned to live with it and wear glasses when I must. I don't know about living with this. I have a bunch of loopy ones in a snarl, slightly to the left of my central vision. I'm terrified, feeling sick to my stomach, and nobody understands what this is like. I live through my eyes, I read, I spend a lot of time on the computer. This has been one week of hell. And apparently it is going to just keep going on. I'm totally depressed.
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Post by Larry on Feb 19, 2005 3:07:02 GMT -5
Hello Peaches,
It is too early to tell what your floaters are going to be like long term. They may improve in months to come, or they may never go away.
The depression you feel now is something we all go through at first. Eventually two things will happen: you will somewhat accept that you have them; your brain will sort of tune them out most of the time. If they are the really big type you may want to consider something like laser disruption, but I'd wait at least 6 months to see if any changes occurred first. As a fellow floater sufferer the best advice I can give you is to say you're experiencing the worst of it right now. They'll drive you crazy in the early months.
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Post by Peaches on Feb 19, 2005 10:23:26 GMT -5
Hi Larry. Thanks for the support. I was glad I found this board. I don't know why it is that medical people are not trained to tell you what you just told me... that it really is normal that it's driving you batty. That most people get depressed.
My sister told me that she has one, and has had for years. So she told me that they can change. But she was mostly irritated by my emotional reaction. It's that old "snap out of it" response. It makes it harder to absorb the useful information.
I'm thinking of getting an eye patch to make it easier to read. This is really hard.
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Post by aliki on Mar 1, 2005 23:52:15 GMT -5
I am really y distressed - and have a similar problem like you - I work in multimedia /IT and we have enormous bright offices - like a fishtank on the 36 th floor of a building - I can't see many faces , in meetings I can't look peope in the eyes because i cant see their faces - I have one enormous floater in my right eye, covering almost my full field of vision - it's like seeing a film being projected on a vaseline screen - I have trouble working and doing my work on computer - I also work as a visual artist and it is becoming pretty hard too do detailed work. And I am only 33 years old, and it is not as if i can go on retirement or something. I feel my life has just begun and I am afraid to loose my eyesight. I hardly can't be outside, wear dark glasses all the time and have my curtains closed continuously. I think I would like to have this problem fixed and I am dreaming about how good it would be to go into a shop and actually see everything that is on display. Honestly - I still can live with this because there are pretty bad other diseases out there. The only thing I would find too hard to live with/to accept is if it would get worse and if I would go truly blind. I just had to get this of my chest. I am seeing my retina doctor again tomorrow. but i think I know what he is going to to say
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